11 Popular Places
11 Popular Places to Buy in Spain
What the eleven coastal places we sell in are actually like to live in, what you can buy in each, and how they behave once the summer crowd goes home.
Overview
One Coast, Four Stretches
We sell new-build homes in eleven places along the Spanish Mediterranean. Here is what each one is actually like, before you look at a single listing.
Start with the stretch, then the town
Nobody picks a town in Spain off a blank map. Pick the stretch of coast first, because each stretch has its own weather, its own kind of housing and its own airport. Once you know the stretch, three or four towns are left and the rest of the decision makes itself.
North to south, these are the four we sell on. Costa Blanca North is the rocky end: cliffs, pine, coves you walk down to, and villa country behind them, with Benidorm at the bottom doing something completely different. Costa Blanca South flattens into long sand and purpose-built communities, and holds more new build than anywhere else in the country. Costa Cálida wraps around the Mar Menor lagoon in Murcia: the mildest winters on the mainland, the fewest foreigners, the lowest prices. Costa del Sol runs west from Málaga and is the one coast that genuinely stays open all winter.
There is a fifth, Costa de Almería, sitting between Murcia and Málaga. Driest coast in Europe and cheaper again, but we have no new-build stock there at the moment, so it stays off the list below.
What They Cost
Median price per m², new build
That chart is the whole price story, so the rest of this article can be about the places. Read it in three bands: Murcia and southern Alicante at the bottom, the Costa Blanca North towns and Benidorm in the middle, the Costa del Sol plus Calpe and Moraira at the top.
What it hides is what you actually get. Around Torrevieja and the Mar Menor, new build means a compact apartment or a townhouse with a communal pool. Around Calpe and Moraira it means a villa with its own plot. Estepona, Fuengirola and Mijas are apartment markets. Three different ways of owning a home in Spain, and a price per square metre will never tell you which one suits you.
One figure worth carrying: a three-bedroom new build starts near €350,000 in the cheapest places here and near €440,000 in the dearest. Narrower than the chart makes it look.
| Place | Coast | Mostly | Homes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar Menor | Costa Cálida | Apartments and small villas | €112,000 |
| Guardamar & Rojales | Costa Blanca South | Apartments and small villas | €148,000 |
| Torrevieja & Orihuela Costa | Costa Blanca South | Apartments and townhouses | €116,000 |
| Pilar de la Horadada | Costa Blanca South | Townhouses and small villas | €245,000 |
| Dénia & Jávea | Costa Blanca North | Villas, some apartments | €249,000 |
| Benidorm & Finestrat | Costa Blanca North | Half apartments, half villas | €147,312 |
| Estepona | Costa del Sol | Apartments in gated schemes | €269,000 |
| Mijas | Costa del Sol | Apartments, some villas | €239,000 |
| Calpe & Moraira | Costa Blanca North | Villas with plots | €180,000 |
| Fuengirola | Costa del Sol | Almost all apartments | €290,160 |
| Marbella | Costa del Sol | Large apartments and villas | €410,000 |
The Eleven Places
Same order as the chart, cheapest to dearest per square metre. Each one links through to what we hold there.
Mar Menor
A shallow, warm lagoon on one side and open Mediterranean on the other, with the promenade at Los Alcázares running between them. The water stays flat, so the sailing and kitesurf schools take complete beginners. San Pedro del Pinatar has natural mud baths and a wellness crowd that keeps coming through winter. Mostly apartments and small villas, and the cheapest way onto any of these coasts. See homes around the Mar Menor
Guardamar & Rojales
Dunes and pine forest sit between Guardamar and its beach, which is why the town feels more Spanish than its neighbours and why nobody built towers on the sand. Inland, Rojales and Ciudad Quesada are purpose-built international country: walkable, sociable, cheaper. Apartments and small villas, nearly all with a communal pool. It goes quiet in November, and for a lot of buyers that is the appeal. See homes in Guardamar & Rojales
Torrevieja & Orihuela Costa
Torrevieja is the working hub of this coast: two salt lakes, a big street market, hospitals, and the highest share of foreign residents of any town in Spain. Head south and Orihuela Costa is one cove after another, La Zenia, Cabo Roig, Campoamor, with golf behind them. Compact apartments and townhouses dominate. With Benidorm, it is the strongest short-let market on the Costa Blanca. See homes in Torrevieja & Orihuela Costa
Pilar de la Horadada
The last town in Alicante before Murcia starts, and it still runs on Spanish hours: the plaza fills at eight in the evening, not six. Torre de la Horadada and Mil Palmeras give it the beach side, low-rise and family-shaped. You buy townhouses and small villas here rather than blocks, which is unusual at this price. See homes in Pilar de la Horadada
Dénia & Jávea
Dénia is a working port with a ferry to Ibiza and a UNESCO listing for its cooking, which is the real reason you can eat well here in February. Jávea sits under the Montgó with three separate bays and the largest international community on the coast. Villas with plots are the norm. Both towns have enough Spanish residents that the restaurants stay open all winter. See homes in Dénia & Jávea
Benidorm & Finestrat
The one place on this list with no low season. Spanish visitors fill it in January, so the buses run, the kitchens stay open and the rental market never switches off. Benidorm has almost no land left, so the new building is above it in Finestrat and along the coast in Villajoyosa, the old fishing town with painted houses and a chocolate factory. See homes in Benidorm & Finestrat
Estepona
Marbella's quieter neighbour, and the town that got its old town right: narrow streets planted with flowers, ordinary Spanish bars rather than beach clubs. Almost everything new here is an apartment in a gated scheme with a pool, and there is more of it on our books than anywhere else on this list. Winters stay busy. The Costa del Sol does not close in October. See homes in Estepona
Mijas
Two places sharing one name. Mijas Pueblo is the whitewashed village on the mountainside that everyone photographs; Mijas Costa below it is golf, beach and modern apartments. Buying up the hill buys you a sea view for less and a short drive down to everything. Mostly apartments with a few villas behind them, and the best value on the Costa del Sol. See homes in Mijas
Calpe & Moraira
Villa country. Moraira has strict building rules and no high-rise, so it stays low and green. Calpe next door has the Peñón, long sand and a working marina. Altea behind them is the artists' town with the blue-domed church. Four in five homes here are villas with their own plot and pool, the largest houses on this list. See homes in Calpe & Moraira
Fuengirola
The most walkable town on the Costa del Sol. A long seafront promenade, a train that reaches Málaga airport in about half an hour, and residents rather than a summer crowd. Almost everything is an apartment. If you want to arrive without a car, do your shopping on foot and still have a life in January, this is the shortlist of one. See homes in Fuengirola
Marbella
More varied than the reputation suggests. The Golden Mile and Puerto Banús at one end, the golf valley of Nueva Andalucía behind, and San Pedro and Benahavís for buyers who want the address without the noise. Mostly large apartments with some very large villas. Rental rates hold up here in winter better than anywhere else on the coast, which is what the price is buying. See homes in Marbella
Narrowing It Down
You want a real winter
Benidorm, Fuengirola, Estepona and Dénia keep their kitchens open in January, because residents keep them there rather than tourists. The resort strips on the Orihuela Costa go quiet from November, and some buyers go there for exactly that.
You want the income
Benidorm and Torrevieja produce the strongest short-let yields on the Costa Blanca. Apartments rent more reliably than villas here: lower entry price, faster turnover, and demand from tourists and long-term tenants alike.
You want space
Calpe, Moraira, Jávea and the hills above Benidorm are the villa markets, the only places here where a plot and a private pool are normal. Budget for a caretaker if the house sits empty half the year.
You want a short transfer
Alicante covers the seven Costa Blanca and Mar Menor places, Málaga the four on the Costa del Sol, and Corvera sits half an hour from Los Alcázares. Nothing here is more than about ninety minutes from a runway.
Before a place wins you over, run its entry price through the Purchase calculator. Tax and fees add about 13% on a new build, and that is often enough to move you one band down the chart. The costs and taxes guide shows where each part of it comes from.
Then open two of the eleven above. Read those two properly, in detail, and ignore the other nine.
Next Step
See a Coast in Person
A viewing trip covers three or four places on one stretch in a few days. We arrange the appointments and the driving; you work out which one you could live in.
Plan a Viewing Trip
